[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 5, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8640-8641]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-5008]



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Minerals Management Service


Aboriginal Title and Rights Claims Information in Cook Inlet and 
Prince William Sound, AL

AGENCY: Minerals Management Service (MMS), Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Request for information regarding claims of aboriginal title 
and rights in Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound of southern Alaska.

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SUMMARY: This notice solicits factual data relevant to claims of 
aboriginal title and rights to unspecified portions of the Alaska 
Federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) included in the areas proposed 
for lease in OCS Lease Sales 149 (Cook Inlet) and 158 (Gulf of Alaska/
Yakutat).
    In a separate Federal Register notice, the Department of the 
Interior announced receipt of, and requested comments on, a petition 
for rulemaking on issues regarding claimed aboriginal title and 
aboriginal hunting and fishing rights of federally recognized tribes in 
Alaska exercisable on the OCS.

DATES: Comments on this request for information are requested through 
April 4, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be directed to: Paul Stang, Chief, Branch of 
Leasing Coordination, Office of Program Development and Coordination, 
(MS-4410) Minerals Management Service, 381 Elden Street, Herndon, 
Virginia 20270-4817. Please indicate that your comment is in response 
to the request for factual data regarding aboriginal title and rights 
on the Alaska OCS.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
William Quinn at (703) 787-1191.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Minerals Management Service (MMS) 
exercises the delegated duties of the Secretary of the Interior under 
the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq. for 
management of the resources of the OCS, the seabed seaward of three 
miles from the coastline (except in the case of Texas and Florida). 
Pursuant to the current 1992-1977 5-Year OCS Leasing Program, announced 
July 1, 1992, MMS has advanced to the final planning stages for the 
scheduled 1996 offering of natural gas and oil leases on the federal 
OCS in Cook Inlet, Sale 149. This is the fourth federal OCS lease sale 
in Cook Inlet. The State of Alaska has included portions of Cook Inlet 
in 28 of its offshore lease sales.
    The Native Villages of Eyak, Tatilek, Chenega, Port Graham, and 
Nanwalek have, through correspondence, petition and litigation, advised 
MMS of their claims of aboriginal title and aboriginal hunting and 
fishing rights to unspecified portions of the sale area. The Villages 
are located in the Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound area of southern 
Alaska. The Villages have submitted a petition for rulemaking 
requesting the promulgation of regulations that recognize and protect 
such Villages' ``exclusive fishing rights'' on the Alaska OCS. 
Petitioners claim that there is legal support for the existence and 
recognition of such rights under the doctrine of aboriginal title and 
that such Villages have ``exclusively used and occupied'' the OCS for 
``subsistence purposes'' since `'time immemorial''. The Villages assert 
that Sale 149 would interfere with the existence of their rights and 
deprive them of mineral income rightfully theirs. This information will 
also be considered in making final decisions on Sale 149, Cook Inlet 
and Sale 158, Gulf of Alaska, Yakutat.
    The Government has consistently taken the position that no person 
or entity has title to, or hunting and fishing rights on, the Alaska 
OCS, which is 

[[Page 8641]]
subject to the paramount authority of the Federal Government exercised 
pursuant to the above cited statute. In fairness to the Villages, 
however, the MMS is carefully pursuing a factual inquiry into the 
potential nature and extent of such Native claims. MMS requests that 
any knowledgeable party submit any information pertinent to the 
Villages' claims regarding the federal OCS, whether such information 
supports or disputes the claims.
    The MMS has received a report on claimed aboriginal use of the OCS 
from Kayak Island to the Lower Cook Inlet. That report suggests that 
even if aboriginal claims could exist on the OCS, the factual predicate 
for a claim by the Native Villages of Eyak, Tatilek, Chenega, Port 
Graham, and Nanwalek, is not present. The MMS invites comments on that 
report which can be obtained by contacting Paul Stag or William Quinn 
at the addresses shown above.
    MMS also invites knowledgeable parties to provide factual responses 
to any of the following questions and to supply any other relevant 
information:
    1. What is the physical/territorial location of the ``ancestral 
fishing areas'' on the federal OCS of each of the five Native Villages? 
Please cite known anthropological data regarding historical use 
indicating that the use occurred more than three miles from the 
coastline on the federal OCS.
    2. What is the size of each Village's historical fishing areas on 
the federal OCS? Do any of them overlap? Have the dimensions and 
geographic descriptions of such areas remained constant over time? If 
not, please describe how they have changed.
    3. How long has each Village used such areas on the federal OCS? 
During this period has such historical use been continuous and 
exclusive of others?
    4. For what type of subsistence uses have such areas on the federal 
OCS been historically used?
    a. To what extent, if any, have they been exclusively and 
continually used in this manner? If so for how long? What distance from 
the coast have these activities occurred?
    b. If such use was ever interrupted, for what reason and for how 
long?
    c. What species of fish, invertebrates, birds, and/or marine 
mammals were hunted over the federal OCS?
    (i) During what time of year was each species hunted?
    (ii) At what depth?
    (iii) What kinds of equipment were historically used to harvest 
such resources? Are newer or different methods and equipment used now? 
If so, when did such changes occur?
    5. What was the impact of Russian or American expansion into the 
region on such uses?
    6. Has the possession and use of such areas been exclusive of other 
Alaska Native entities?
    If not, is there any evidence of ``joint'' or ``concurrent'' use by 
other Villages? If so, what is the basis and nature of such joint usage 
and when did such usage begin?
    7. When was the first use of the seabed and its resources and by 
whom? Its mineral resources (including geological and geophysical work 
preparatory to such exploitation)?
    MMS will consider all such information (along with responses to the 
other request mentioned above) in making final decisions on Sale 149 
and Sale 158.

    Dated: February 26, 1996.
Cynthia Quarterman,
Director, Minerals Management Service.
[FR Doc. 96-5008 Filed 3-4-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-M